Sweet fishing on Pea Island

Oregon Inlet offers opportunities for anglers to fish on foot

PEA ISLAND -- The Outer Banks are famous for two things: bad weather and great fishing.

But most people don't know that the fishing can be great even when the weather is bad.

Oregon Inlet is probably best known for passage to the sea by the area's charter fleet, but the area around it offers quick fishing for those not afloat.

Not only can anglers fish along the catwalks on either side of the bridge, but there is a pier, a public restroom and plenty of parking at the facility.

Recently, I took my wife, Natasha, and daughter Dasha on a fishing trip to Nags Head. But on the morning of our trip, the wind was blowing so hard that it was shaking the restaurant on the Nags Head Pier while we ate breakfast. Even though the surf was breaking under the houses on the beach, I hoped we would be able to find a place to get out of the weather and get in on some fishing.

My first stop was Whalebone Tackle on the Manteo causeway, where shop owner Bill McGaskill gave us a list of places to try and rigged us up with some tackle to use.

"There's always some place to get out of the wind and go fishing," he said.

The first stop on the list was the Melvin R. Daniels bridge, better known as the Little Bridge on the Manteo Causeway. Bill had told us that this spot fishes better during a strong northerly blow because the wind pushes water and fish through the bridge.

When we arrived at the bridge, there was plenty of wind. We also found plenty of anglers lined up on the southside catwalk. The first angler I ran into was James Temple of Grassy Creek. He told me that he, wife Nancy and son Eli had picked up a few small puppy drum earlier in the morning.

The Temples were using chunks of fresh shrimp on a bottom rig that was adorned with No. 1 hooks and 3 ounces of lead. I noticed that some of the other anglers were throwing half-ounce red-headed jigs and green soft-plastic tails.

Natasha and Dasha walked up and down the bridge inspecting the other anglers' buckets. When they reported light catches, we decided to move onto the next place McGaskill had recommended.

Although McGaskill had told us to check out the public fishing piers at the east end of the old Umstead Memorial Bridge and the west end of the new Virginia Dare Bridge, we headed to one of his top picks: the catwalk on the south end of Bonner Bridge. McGaskill had heard of a good run of speckled trout and keeper-sized red drum, and we wanted to see if there were any fish left for us.

Evidently, we weren't the only ones who had heard of the good fishing. When we pulled into the parking area on the east side of N.C. 12, anglers were standing shoulder to shoulder along the rocks and down the catwalk that runs 100 yards up the side of the bridge.

I grabbed a medium-action, 7-foot spinning rod and a small tackle box packed with jigheads, Fishbites tails, MirrOlures and Got-Cha plugs. When I got to the catwalk, one angler was in the process of swinging a good-sized bluefish over the rail.

When I asked him for a fishing report, he said, "You should have been here earlier." (That should be the official mantra of coastal fishing.)

His name was Ray Carter of Hickory, and he told me that he had caught striped bass, drum, flounder and blues earlier in the morning.

Carter uses an unusual rig that starts with a couple of party balloons and ends 12 feet below with a live mullet hooked through the nose on a 2/0 J-hook. He drops the rig into the water and lets the current carry the balloons and the bait out to the fish.

I found a place in line of anglers on the rocks. While I threw a 4-inch soft-plastic jig tail on a half-ounce jig head, I watched a few guys catch blues on Got-Cha plugs. Then I switched to a Got-Cha and watched a couple guys land puppy drum on soft plastics.

After watching a few more guys catch a few more fish, I decided to move on and try a different place. We loaded back into the car and headed south on N.C. 12 until we got to the Pea Island Contact Station.

Anglers who park at the Contact Station will find a visitors center, restrooms, hiking trails, and a beach that usually features some good holes and sloughs for fishing. While I packed my gear and changed into my waders, the girls watched the swans and other waterfowl on the pond behind the visitor's center.

Pea Island is one of the hidden treasures on the Outer Banks. Unlike most of the stretches of beach on the island, off road vehicles are not allowed on this section of the refuge.

When I crossed the dunes, the wind almost blew me over. My wife and daughter stood on the summit facing into the wind with their arms stretched out like airplane wings.

I unpacked my gear, baited up and gave it a go. I was looking for red drum, so I rigged up with an 8/0 circle hook on a fish-finder rig. Even with 8 ounces of lead, the conditions made fishing tough.

Usually, this section of beach hosts puppy drum, speckled trout and legions of panfish. But today it hosted only a headstrong angler and his windblown family. Even if we didn't catch anything, we did at least get to go fishing. It also made foot-fishing Oregon Inlet even more appealing.